News

Indications are that higher than normal temperatures can be expected for most parts of South Africa from May to July this year, according to Cobus Olivier, long-term weather forecaster at Weather South Africa.

The European Commission’s latest short-term outlook for agricultural markets indicated that maize imports to the EU would increase 38,6% from 14,5 million tons in 2017/2018 to 20,1 million tons for the current season, with the majority of this maize coming from Ukraine.

India’s cotton imports are expected to increase by 80% this year. This followed the devastating drought that had hit many states in that country’s cotton production areas, which resulted in a supply shortage of quality material for textile mills.

Grain SA’s annual Nampo Harvest Day agricultural show, which will be held from 14 to 17 May at Nampo Park near Bothaville, takes place just a week after the South African general election.

In the run-up to this month’s general election, Farmer’s Weekly journalists around the country posed the same questions to the seven political parties that performed the best in the 2014 general election. In addition, three of the most interesting new parties that will be contesting the election on 8 May were also included. The questions were: “As stated in your party’s election manifesto, what is your commitment, firstly, to agricultural development, and secondly, to land reform?”

Firearm owners are being left stranded by the firearm licensing “fiasco” currently playing out in the country.

German farmers have expressed concern that the high temperatures experienced so far this month could result in drought conditions similar to that of last year.

Consumers and motorists are bracing themselves for another hefty increase in the fuel price, making it the fourth consecutive price hike this year.

It is expected that record maize volumes will be realised in Brazil’s second crop-growing season, or the so-called safrinha, thereby increasing maize production for the 2018/2019 marketing year by 18% to 95 million tons.

South Africans will now have to pin their hopes on two new blade shearers, Fickson Maqhosha and Bonile Rebela, to defend the country’s title at the Golden Shears World Championship in Le Dorat, France later this year.

A new needle-free injection system, which uses pneumatic technology and thereby reduces animal handling and stress during the administering of vaccinations to sheep and goats, has been tested in the US.

Sheep shearers from across South Africa are gathering in Bloemfontein this weekend to try and secure their place in the national team heading to the Golden Shears World Championship in Le Dorat, France, in July.

The Paramount Chief of the Ndiweni people in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland province, Chief Nhlanhla Felix Ndiweni, has condemned the government’s latest eviction of white farmers in that country.

Agri-technology company Devenish Nutrition, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has announced a £1,7 million (about R32 million) investment in agri-services company Sidai Africa based in Kenya.

The Minister of Agriculture Senzeni Zokwana recently announced that the new total allowable catch for South African abalone (Haliotis midae) was set at 96t for the 2018/2019 fishing season, which was the same as the previous season.

Agri SA and Fidelity ADT, a subsidiary of the Fidelity Services Group, recently signed an agreement in Centurion aimed at curbing the high number of farm attacks and related agricultural crime in South African rural communities.

A new study has revealed how deforestation pressures have increased as a result of the geopolitical instability in the global soya market following the trade tensions between the US and China.

The African Association for Vertical Farming was launched during a recent conference hosted by Izindaba Zokudla (Conversations about Food) at the University of Johannesburg's (UJ) Soweto Campus.

Contracts for the cultivation of marijuana in Germany has been awarded to two Canadian companies.

The Zimbabwean government’s decision to compensate white commercial farmers who lost their land as part of former president Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme was precipitated by pressure from the international community, according to Dr Johan Willemse, independent agricultural economist.